Stillness

It’s vital that we engage in worship and warfare but we should not overlook waiting, writes Duncan Clark

I was recently sent a copy of an article that was featured in the first ever edition of the Elim Evangel. Under the title of ‘The Power of Stillness’, AB Simpson, writing in 1919, described some of the challenges he found in seeking God in moments of quiet prayer. He could have been writing today! He described distractions and intrusions that prevented him from hearing the whisper of God. No sooner had he entered the place of stillness did ‘a thousand clamouring notes from without and within’ disturb his concentration, ‘until I could hear nothing but their noise and their din’, he writes.

Whether it’s contemporary society, or that of a hundred years ago, it seems that we have a tendency to promote hurry, noise and crowds. There is a cultural conspiracy that drags us into living loud and living large. This makes it very difficult to hear the quiet voice of God that whispers to us in the stillness.

While it’s vital that we engage in adoration (worship) and intercession (warfare), there is another form of prayer that we overlook at our peril, and that is contemplation (waiting). We might call it simply ‘being with God’, and it’s this form of prayer that becomes our subversive resistance to the magnetic pull of our chaotic culture. We sit in the stillness with him for no other reason than for intimacy.

Direction Magazine began life as the Elim Evangel in 1919

Like the weaned child of Psalm 131 who can find its food from alternative sources but chooses to be with its mother for the sake of closeness, so we ‘calm and quieten’ ourselves to be with him. In that posture we find that our scattered senses become centred, the sediment of our lives starts to settle, and we can begin to hear his voice with greater clarity.

We would be advised to receive Solomon’s wise words when we come to God in prayer, remembering that he is in heaven and we are on earth, and therefore we should “let [our] words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). We would do well to heed the prophet’s clear instruction that, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). We should accept the counsel of the psalmist who, when kingdoms are falling and mountains are quaking, tells us to “‘Be still” (Psalm 46:10) and remember that the Lord Almighty is with us. Without doubt, words are an important part of our praying, but there are times when we should use less.

So, find a quiet space with few distractions. Take a few deep breaths. Open your hands to the Lord as a sign of your readiness. Tell the Lord that you are there for him alone. Allow the affections of your heart to be directed toward him. In the stillness remember that you are more than what you produce; that you are more than a vehicle through which he gets his work done.

Contemplate his beauty and his majesty. Remember that you are loved. Receive his peace. And who knows, you might even be “transformed into his image with ever- increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

For those who want to ‘go fast’ this form of prayer will make no sense at all, but if you want to ‘go far’ it will create a depth to your soul that will endure and you’ll be amazed by what can happen when you seek God in the stillness. Or, as AB Simpson explained, “When the other voices ceased, or I ceased to hear them, there was a still small voice in the depth of my spirit.”